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The Right Honourable
Lord Henry Somerset
PC, DL, JP
The Right Honourable Lord Henry Somerset PC, DL, JP
Comptroller of the Household
	In office; 2 March 1874 – 4 February 1879
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	Benjamin Disraeli
Preceded by	Lord Otho FitzGerald
Succeeded by	The Earl of Yarmouth
Member of Parliament for Monmouthshire
	In office; 1871–1880 Serving with Octavius Morgan, Frederick Courtenay Morgan
Preceded by	Octavius Morgan; Poulett Somerset
Succeeded by	Frederick Courtenay Morgan; John Rolls
Personal details
Born	Lord Henry Richard Charles Somerset; 7 December 1849; Kingstown, County Dublin
Died	10 October 1932 (aged 82); Florence, Italy
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Lady Isabella Somers-Cocks; (m. 1872; died 1921)
Children	Henry Somerset
Parent(s)	Henry Somerset, 8th Duke of Beaufort ; Lady Georgiana Charlotte Curzon

Lord Henry Richard Charles Somerset, PC, DL, JP (7 December 1849 – 10 October 1932) was a British Conservative politician and composer of popular music. He served as Comptroller of the Household under Benjamin Disraeli between 1874 and 1879.

Early life

Somerset was born at the Salt Hill Hotel, Kingstown, County Dublin,^[1] the second son of Henry Somerset, 8th Duke of Beaufort, by his wife Lady Georgiana Charlotte Curzon, daughter of Richard Curzon-Howe, 1st Earl Howe. He was the brother of Henry Somerset, 9th Duke of Beaufort, and Lord Arthur Somerset.

Career

Somerset was elected at a by-election in 1871 as Member of Parliament (MP) for Monmouthshire, and held the seat until he stood down at the 1880 general election.^[2]^[3] When the Conservatives came to power in 1874 under Benjamin Disraeli, he was sworn of the Privy Council^[4] and appointed Comptroller of the Household,^[5] a post he held until 1879.^[6] Apart from his political career he was also a Deputy Lieutenant of Monmouthshire and a justice of the peace for Herefordshire and Monmouthshire.

Personal life

Somerset married Lady Isabella Caroline Somers-Cocks,^[7] the eldest daughter and co-heir of Charles Somers-Cocks, 3rd Earl Somers, on 6 February 1872. They had one child, but their marriage collapsed after a few years because of Lord Henry's infatuation with a seventeen-year-old boy and his homosexuality.^[8]^[9]

As a result, he withdrew to Italy, while his wife was ostracised from society for having made public, contrary to the conventions of the time, why she had left him.^[10] Their only child was:

Henry Charles Somers Augustus (1874–1945), who married Lady Katherine Beauclerk, a daughter of William Beauclerk, 10th Duke of St Albans; their grandson, David Somerset, 11th Duke of Beaufort, would succeed to the dukedom of Beaufort in 1984.^[11] After Lady Katherine's death, he married Brenda, dowager Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, widow of Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 3rd Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, and only daughter of Major Robert Woodhouse, of Orford House, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, on 28 January 1932.^[12] They had no issue.

Lady Henry died in March 1921. Somerset remained a widower until his death in Florence in October 1932, aged 82.^[13]

Poetry and music

Somerset is the author of a book of poetry, Songs of adieu (1889), which the scholar Timothy D'Arch Smith has identified as "the first book of Uranian verse".^[14] He was also a composer of several songs including A song of sleep (Ricordi, 1903). His setting to music of Christina Rossetti's Echo enjoyed considerable success when it was published by Chappell & Co. c. 1900.^[13]

References

^ "Births". Hampshire Advertiser. 15 December 1849. p. 8. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
^ Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1977]. British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 529. ISBN 0-900178-26-4.
^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "M" (part 3)
^ "No. 24072". The London Gazette. 6 March 1874. p. 1519.
^ "No. 24071". The London Gazette. 3 March 1874. p. 1453.
^ "No. 24675". The London Gazette. 7 February 1879. p. 601.
^ Black, Ros. "Lady Henry Somerset 1851 - 1921". Archived from the original on 4 June 2012.
^ "Victoria Embankment Gardens – Lady Henry Somerset". 7 February 2016.
^ https://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/subjects/womens-suffrage/suffrage-biographies/lady-henry-somerset-1851-1921/ ^{[bare URL]}
^ Rodney Bell (2011) As Good as God, As Clever as the Devil: The Impossible Life of Mary Benson
^ "Duke of Beaufort Dies at 83; Renowned as a Fox Hunter". The New York Times. 6 February 1984. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
^ "LADY DUFFERIN WED TO CAPT. SOMERSET; Widow of Marquess of Dnfferin and Ava Married to Son of Lord Henry Somerset". The New York Times. 29 January 1932. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
^ ^a ^b "ENGLISH COMPOSER DIES IN FLORENCE; Lord Henry Somerset Had Been Residing in Italy Since Separation From Wife. ONCE CONSERVATIVE M.P. Controller of Queen Victoria's House- hold, 1874-79 -- Ballads Long Popular In England". The New York Times. 12 October 1932. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
^ Timothy d'Arch Smith, Love in Earnest: Some Notes on the Lives and Writings of English "Uranian" Poets from 1889 to 1930 (1970), p. 24

External links

Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Lord Henry Somerset

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Octavius Morgan Poulett Somerset	Member of Parliament for Monmouthshire 1871 – 1880 With: Octavius Morgan 1841-74, Frederick Courtenay Morgan 1874-85	Succeeded by Frederick Courtenay Morgan John Rolls
Political offices
Preceded by Lord Otho FitzGerald	Comptroller of the Household 1874–1879	Succeeded by The Earl of Yarmouth